1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a removable sink drain insert for scrubbing and scraping adhered debris, such as adhered food debris from utensils into a sink drain equipped with a garbage disposal.
2. Description of Prior Art
Kitchen sinks are often equipped with a powered garbage disposal. The garbage disposal is normally located directly underneath the sink drain providing for convenient disposal of food scraps and food debris. The prior art has several examples of inventions seeking to make the use of the garbage disposal more convenient. However, these examples fail to adequately address the need to remove adhered debris from common eating ware and kitchen utensils such as forks, knives, spoons, spatulas, mixing spoons and the like.
Examples found in the prior art requires the user to place one hand into the sink area to grasp a scraping or scrubbing implement while the other hand holds a the item to cleaned such as a plate. This situation is inefficient because of the number of steps required to clean off an item, e.g., grasping the implement from the prior art sink insert with one hand, holding the item to be cleaned with the other hand, setting down the item, and directing the loosened debris into the garbage disposal inlet with the current free hand. Consequently, the user cannot operate the water sprayer often found on today's sink faucets systems at the same time while holding the implement and the item.
For example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,996, to Loos, provides a garbage disposal stopper-strainer with a rigid scraper. In Loos, it is intended that when a user wishes to clean debris from a utensil, the user must with one hand take the cleaning implement out of the stopper-strainer, while the other hand holds the utensil. The user then must use both hands to remove the debris from the utensil. After the debris is removed, the debris is directed into the garbage disposal inlet. This strategy of removing debris is also found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,362 to Jackson. In Jackson, instead of a scraper, a removable brush is retained within a garbage disposal stopper-strainer. When the user wishes to scrub a utensil, the user must grasp the removable brush from the stopper-strainer with one hand while the other hand holds the item to be scrubbed. Both hands are utilized to remove debris from the utensil and additional effort is required to ensure that the debris is directed into the garbage disposal inlet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,782 to Coakley shows another garbage disposal sink-strainer with a scraper. In Coakley, the device incorporates a plunger to push debris into the garbage disposal chamber. However, this device also suffers from the same shortcomings as the prior two patents mentioned above, in that the scraping device must be removed from its housing within the sink-strainer by one hand while the other hand is used to hold the item to be scraped. Consequently, in the three prior art references discussed above, the user does not have a free second hand in which to operate the sink faucet or sink faucet sprayer or the garbage disposal unit.
Accordingly, what is required is a device that allows a user to use a single hand to efficiently take off debris from eating utensils while at the same time, the debris is directed into the garbage disposal unit.